Object personification is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human
agents. In online forums, autistic individuals commonly report experiencing this
phenomenon. Given that approximately half of all autistic individuals experience difficulties
identifying their own emotions, the suggestion that object personification may be a feature of
autism seems almost paradoxical. Why would a person experience sympathy for objects,
when they struggle to understand and verbalise the emotions of other people as well as their
own? An online survey was used to assess tendency for personification in 87 autistic and 263
non-autistic adults. Together, our results indicate that object personification occurs
commonly among autistic individuals, and perhaps more often (and later in life) than in the
general population. Given that in many cases, autistic people report their personification
experiences as distressing, it is important to now consider the reasons for the increased
personification, and identify structures for support